A/N: Never judge a book by its movie. Seriously. Just don't.

TheRanger'sDaughter: You'll have to keep reading for your curiosity. Elizabet has really good backing. She has a pretty great family :)

Aubrey: Welcome back :) Hunting wolves was pretty tame compared to everything else Rangers do. Noah did mess up. Even with his grief, he messed up. Glad you like Brendon :) I'm not a fan of short hair personally. It makes me look like a boy.

Disclaimer: I'm not John Flanagan.

"Where did Caroline get off to?" Reese wondered.

They'd been looking for her over an hour with no luck. It was well past dark now.

"Maybe we should try the room?" Russ suggested. "Maybe she went back."

"Maybe," Reese shrugged.

Just as the two turned to go back, however, Russ elbowed Reese.

"We're being followed," he whispered.

"What? You sure?"

"Of course I'm sure."

Sure enough, Russ was right. Men dressed in the same uniform as Soto's henchmen came from alleyways in droves. People scattered. Reese and Russ were outnumbered.

"Don't resist," Russ hissed at him as they were overpowered. Soto Lupiz came from the masses. He went straight to Russ and tugged at the chain around his neck until his silver oak leaf came out. Reese glared at him.

"Almost just like the one those Hibernians used to wear," Soto clicked his tongue. "Search them."

Reese and Russ glared as they were systematically searched and disarmed. One narrowed his eyes to Reese. Reese had removed everything that could mark him a member of the Araluen royal family, but he missed one thing. It didn't exactly mark him Araluen. It did, however, connect him to one person Rey Juan Carlos would surely be threatened by.

It was just a notebook bound in leather. Reese used it to keep notes and to rip out sheets when he needed to write letters. No important information was kept there, not on a royal level and not on a personal level. He had a few scribblings practicing the written Iberion language in the notebook, as well as the remnants of a game he'd played with children on the voyage over.

On the cover, however, was the seal of the person who gave it to him: his mother. Queen Anamaria Altman of Araluen, originally of Iberion, seen in her native country as a woman who betrayed them all.

"Anamaria," Soto Lupiz nodded. "You are Araluen?"

"No," Reese insisted.

"You are!"

"No!"

"I am Talia's son," Russ said. Soto turned from Russ towards Reese.

"What?" he demanded.

"I am Talia's son," Russ repeated. Reese's heart raced. If this idea of Russ' was going to work he needed to give a surname. Only, Talia didn't have a surname prior to marrying Liam. She'd never adopted one either. No one took it upon themselves to bestow her with a second name and she didn't go looking for one. Even in the brothel's record books, only her first name was written. Reese remembered from some long ago lesson that had been by design from the Academy Talia, Liam, and Kineta all grew up in as orphans.

"Talia," Soto repeated, narrowing his eyes.

"From Hibernia. We are Hibernian," Russ went on. "This is my brother. We found that journal when we killed Prince Reese of Araluen."

Reese sighed. Rangers were supposed to be excellent liars. Russ' was too farfetched to be believed. They were done for.

"Why did you kill Prince Reese?" Soto pressed.

"We found him trying to invade Iberion with his army. He was trying to prove himself to his mother. We took care of him," Russ answered. "I can prove it. Look in my purse. You'll find his seal."

Soto nodded to his men. They rummaged through Russ' purse until they found Reese's signet ring. Reese peered at it as it was passed to Soto. Surely it wasn't real…

It was.

Reese looked to Russ. How did he get his signet ring? How long had he had it?

"Anyone know what Prince Reese's seal looks like?" Soto asked.

"Rey Juan Carlos would know. It would be in his records," a henchman answered.

"A trip to the capitol after all," Soto told Russ and Reese. "I just want to know two things. Why are you here, and why did you kill the Araluen prince?"

"We killed the prince hoping to get favor from Rey Juan Carlos. And with you, Father."

Soto stared at Russ. Reese glanced to his friend.

"Father?" Soto repeated.

"I asked my mother who my father was. She told me Soto Lupiz. That's you, is it not?"

Soto laughed. "Put them in irons."

"Irons?" Reese repeated as the men closed in on them. "This is how you treat the son you just met?"

"I stuck his mother in prison for spying on me. Why should I trust her son, who comes from nowhere?" Soto tossed up Reese's signet ring and caught it in his palm. "Thank you for taking care of Araluen's prince for me. Rey Juan Carlos will be most pleased to hear that news."

Soon they were surrounded by men who didn't speak the common tongue. Reese looked back to Russ once they were being led away.

"How did you get my ring?" he whispered.

"It's a fake."

"It looked real."

"That's because Uncle Will is a good teacher."

"How long have you had that?"

"Since I was an apprentice."

Reese frowned. "You put my seal on a ring as an apprentice and have been carrying it around as a trophy all this time?"

"No. I've been carrying it as a tool."

The henchman on either side of them barked for silence, so Reese let it go. Russ wouldn't use his ring unless he had to, right?

Actually, this explained more than one strange event around Reese's seal. Gilan and then Daniel had promised the investigation of a counterfeit seal was underway. Now that he thought about it, Russ had been present at each of those assurances.

The shared glance between Russ and each Commandant made a lot more sense.